The room was silent as three separate teams triple checked its security. That security had very little to do with the fact the majority of the Citadel Alliance High Command, plus the heads of several of the more important Anti-Reaper Think Tanks were all in the same room. No, that was for the security outside the room to worry about. Here, in this buried bunker on a worthless world barely in range of FTL from a Relay, the security was more concerned with making damn sure there wasn’t the slightest sign of indoctrination or other comprised anything on the people inside. The sheer paranoia, far beyond that of even the central war rooms that ran all the fleets and military assets against the Reapers, brought home how deadly serious this meeting was. Many of the previously cantankerous men and women of all species had shifted from irritated at being pulled into this to…a little perturbed. Finally, as the last team cleared the last person and left, Admiral Kandros spoke up with a gruff voice.

“This better be damn important, Lawson. You’ve disrupted the hell out of dozens of operations with this stunt. If it was literally anyone but you who had leaned on everyone and pushed so hard, this meeting wouldn’t have happened.”

Oriana didn’t flinch at the glares directed at her. No one had been happy with pulling this much of command into one isolated location. But she’d pushed hard, traded on everything she and Shepard had both done, to make it happen. She didn’t regret it a bit.

“We found a way to beat the Reapers. A means to hurt them so badly they can’t recover.”

Glares vanished and spines stiffened as she suddenly had the full and utterly undivided attention of every person in the room. Hackett gave all of their demands in a single, heavy word.

“Explain.”

Oriana nodded and pulled up dozens of images on the walls around them, all depicting everything Task Force Aurora had put together about the Reaper’s history. Then, on the central holo terminal of the conference table, she pulled up an image of Leviathan, one of the very few they had.

“This is the race that created the Reapers. You can, I’m sure, see the physical similarities. And yes, we know for as close to pure certainty that it was them, because a handful of them are still around and we found them.”

That bombshell ignited a dozen questions, people speaking over each other, shouts, and cries of disbelief. Matriarch Lidanya wasn’t having any of it and slammed a biotically charged hand down on the table, silencing the whole room with the noise and flash of power.

“Go on.”

“The survivors of this race went into hiding. Those we talked to are descendants of descendants of descendants, not the original creators. But they are extremely long lived and have been watching every single cycle. They were the original target of the Reapers, a case of a single Rouge AI turning on them. They were also the first species to be harvested, not to mention the origin of the indoctrination ability. Luckily for us, they’ve been collecting data as they can ever since the first harvest, mostly by using their own, cruder form of the indoctrination ability to create agents among every major species of each cycle.”

Oriana tapped a key, shifting the display to show the names of hundreds of species over dozens of cycles on a chart, with each cycle labeled. There was a noticeable change between the first few cycles and the current pattern, the cycles coming increasingly closer together in time.

“The original AI was given the task of Preserving Organic Life. It was, in fact, arrogantly made in an attempt to stop the cycle of Synthetic Life and Organic Life wiping each other out. Something that had apparently happened to numerous civilizations already at the point this new AI was created. In a classic example of AI gone wrong, it eventually decided to take extreme measures. It didn’t believe it had enough data, that it needed something more…and it began the cycles as one enormous experiment to gather more data. Everything since then, such as the construction of the Mass Relay Network? All of it was done to make its experiment more efficient. Letting organic species develop naturally was too slow, so it created a framework for them to grow into, giving it faster cycles and more consistent data. Essentially, it had been building a massive dataset to try and solve its problem.”

The faces around her were a mix of disbelief, shock, and understanding. Probably the most disturbing reactions in the room were the cold-blooded nods of a few Salarians, to whom the idea seemed to just make sense. Oriana shut down that line of thought. She could worry about the Salarian tendency toward genocidal ‘science’ later. Much later. Possibly never. Her self-assigned task was the Reapers. If she somehow avoided being assassinated after all of this, she could retire in peace to let the galaxy burn with its other problems. The Reapers were more than enough for her, thanks.

“I started with this explanation, as it was key to understanding the two points of vulnerability we have been able to identify from the data shared with us by Leviathan’s species. They had a lot of data on what the Reapers have been up to…but why was just as important, because it means we finally know how to short circuit the whole thing. How to break their experiment.”

Another key press and the main holo display shifted to show the Citadel.

“The first vulnerability is right here. We now know where the AI behind this madness lives. The Core of the Citadel, it turns out, is older than the Relay built around it. The Keepers keep everyone out of the deep interior of the Citadel for a damn good reason…it’s where the AI Core that started all of this resides.”

That revelation drew vicious curses from several mouths. For good reason. Even if they’d abandoned the Citadel as much as they could in regards to command and control of the Anti-Reaper coalition, they hadn’t been able to outright abandon the station completely. It was, not at all accidentally, the central hub of civilian communication, thousands of government functions, and much more. It would take decades and a hideous amount of political maneuvering, money, and effort to move all of that away from the Citadel. They’d been doing damn good just to separate the various military channels and commands away from it.

“Obviously, this is why you are all here. With the AI where it is, our best previous efforts at information control were fucked sideways and upside down from the start. We did enough not to be totally screwed, but not enough to prevent a lot of information leaking to the Reapers anyway. Literally anything ever said within the Citadel itself has to be considered compromised.”

Lots of pale faces, but also more than a few understanding looks about just why this meeting was happening where it was.

“Obviously, hitting that AI Core and doing so hard and fast is part of what we need to plan out here. However, it’s only step one. I might not have even risked bringing you all in if that was it. A few dozen small specialist teams might have actually had a less risky chance of reaching the AI and disabling it. That, however, would close our second window of opportunity, possibly leading to our defeat.”

Hackett, always able to cut to the heart of the matter and more able than most to roll with the punches, broke the stunned silence at that.

“You need fleet assets, lots of them, to hit something. Since you didn’t compartmentalize the ops, I’m assuming the AI’s defeat will open a window of chance for us to hit something truly vital to the Reapers?”

Oriana shook her head, smiling at the older man.

“Got it in one, Admiral. Yes. Specifically…we’ve finally identified the Reaper’s logistics base.”

That revelation snapped all of the military men and women in the room out of the stunned silence the multiple bombshells had sent them into. Only a threatening, glowing hand from Matriarch Lidanya cut off the stream of sudden noise. Oriana was beginning to really like that Asari. She should send her a fruit basket. Or maybe some Jubeiale.

“As every one of you knows, or should know, we had previously been unable to figure out where the Reapers were repairing their ships. Minor damage being fixed between battles was one thing, but the war has now gone on long enough for us to notice specific Reapers that we damaged badly coming back into the fray fully repaired. Despite their techno-organic nature, something like that means they have a logistics base somewhere. Now we know for sure that one of the leading theories about where happens to be true.”

Various eyes lit on the citadel as more than one set of lips whispered, growled, or groan the phrase ‘Dark Space.’ Oriana grinned tightly at the half-synchronized response.

“Yes, Dark Space. Specifically an area of it beyond the edge of the galaxy. There’s good news, better news, bad news, and mixed news. Good news, we’ve confirmed that their logistics base is out in Dark Space. Better news, it turns out that the primary purpose of the Alpha Relay wasn’t as a backdoor, but as a place to send their damaged ships back to that Relay from. Its use as a backdoor was simply a secondary role they could activate when needed. The Omega Relay could do the same thing…and sadly they currently have control of that particular system. Undoubtedly, they are using it to funnel ships back for repair. If we want to pull off what we need to do, we’ll have to take that Relay at least temporarily.”

There were grimaces all around at that. Admiral Kandros was the one to speak up about it, after exchanging glances with his fellow Admirals.

“That won’t be easy. We’d wondered why they poured so much effort into that particular system. It’s fortified heavily. To even had a chance, we’ll have to pull their attention elsewhere, somehow.”

Oriana nodded, unbothered by the observation.

“That’s why all of this is going to have to go off in a rapid, pre-planned fashion. Disabling their Overlord AI should leave the Reapers destabilized and confused, vulnerable to taking heavy losses while they try to regain their equilibrium. However, each of them is still a singular entity. Given time, they will reorganize and possibly continue with their assigned task. Hell, there might even be a plan in place for this, a way for them to bring the AI back. Which is why we also need to hit their logistics base at the same time.”

Oriana tapped more keys, shifting the main display to show overviews of three planned operations.

“The first op to go off will be against the AI. But the moment we kill it, a QEC message will trigger a fleet to jump in on the Omega system and rampage during the confusion. Take control if you can, destroy the Relay there if you can’t. Meanwhile, the first op’s team will be moving onto their Phase 2, which is opening the Citadel Relay to Dark Space. The third operation will be a fleet moving through that Relay and into the Reaper’s home space.”

Oriana took a deep breath, closing her eyes for just a moment, before opening them to sweep around the conference table.

“Make no mistake. That last operation has to succeed. Because the worst news we got? It was the information that we’ve been fighting less than ten percent of the Reapers’ total forces.”

There was a sudden lack of blood in a lot of faces around the table, and total silence as they all realized what that meant. Hackett again managed to croak out a demand for an explanation, and Oriana braced herself as she gave it.

“Remember when I said that the entire purpose of the AI was to preserve life? That’s what the sick fuck of an AI is doing, in a very twisted way. Every Reaper is made of a slurry of genetic material from one race. Yet, only the smallest races produce only a single Reaper when harvested. Most races produce at least a handful of dreadnaughts and a dozen smaller vessels. Dominant populations like the Asari? They become fodder for an entire new cycle. Dozens or hundreds of Reapers made from Trillions of Asari. In this way, technically, there is a distilled, immortal record of every species that’s ever been harvested. But…the majority of those Reapers are left sleeping during the cycles. The AI can’t risk them, for if all the Reapers of a single species are wiped out, it has violated its core purpose…”

It was Matriarch Lidanya this time, that voiced the realization first.

“So it leaves them in…storage, essentially. A genetic databank. Preserving them so they can be, what, recreated once it has its answer?”

Oriana nodded.

“That’s the theory, at least. On that point, we have only their creator’s speculation. But it matches what is known, including the one or two looks into Dark Space a few species over the cycles have managed. Lots of sleeping Reapers. A small Guard fleet yes, but the vast majority of Reapers there are in hibernation…”

Fire lit in numerous eyes as a vicious growl of victory rose from Ravis Kandros.

“Which means we can literally kill them in their sleep. We just have to prevent the Reapers that are awake from getting there fast enough to stop us. If we do that, and kill their Master AI too, we can actually win. It won’t be easy, or quick. But we can win. Permanently.”

Oriana’s smile was bloodthirsty as she responded.

“Exactly, Admiral. If we can get to those sleeping Reapers? Then our enemy will have made their Final Error...”